Surgery has always been a vital part of modern medicine to treat certain conditions that other interventional means cannot. However, surgical procedures are not without significant complications including bleeding at the surgical site following the procedure. For example, bleeding commonly occurs following a Whipple procedure which is a major surgery that involves the removal of the head of the pancreas to treat pancreatic cancer, in addition, bleeding is a common complication following oral surgery and thyroid surgery. Bleeding can occur following most surgeries resulting in further complications. To prevent the build-up of blood at surgical sites following surgery, drains or small tubes are typically placed at a surgical site prior to closing the surgical site to allow for the discharge of blood from bleeding following a surgical procedure. However, the use of a drain can be uncomfortable for the patient and the discharge of blood can be unpleasant as well. As such, there is a need to develop an effective treatment to prevent bleeding at a surgical site following a surgical procedure.
One pharmaceutical that is known to the medical profession is clonidine, which is widely recognized as an antihypertensive agent that acts as an agonist on the alpha-2-adrenergic receptor and as a neural receptor agonist. In general, clonidine also referred to as 2,6-dichloro-N-2-imidazolidinyldenebenzenamine (C9H9Cl2N3) may be represented by the following chemical structure:

Clonidine has been shown to effectively regulate blood pressure in the perioperative period in patients undergoing rhytidectomy. Beninger et al., “Clonidine in the Management of Blood Pressure During Rhytidectomy,” Asethet. Surgical Journal, 18(2): 89-94. However, to date, sustain release clonidine depot formulations have not been developed to prevent, reduce and/or treat bleeding following a surgical procedure.